Sprayed insulation is commonly used in the construction industry for insulating the open cavities of building walls, floors, ceilings, attics and other areas. Insulation materials, such as loose fiberglass, rock wool, mineral wool, fibrous plastic, cellulose, ceramic fiber, etc., that is combined with an adhesive or water, are sprayed from an applicator into such open cavities to reduce the rate of heat loss or gain there-though. The adhesive properties of the insulation mixture, resulting from the combination of the insulation materials with the adhesive or water, allow it to adhere to vertical or overhanging surfaces, thus allowing for an application of insulation prior to the installation of wallboard and similar cavity enclosing materials.
In applying sprayed insulation into open cavities, an installer typically holds an outlet end of the applicator towards the open cavity and then sprays the insulation and adhesive mixture into the cavity until the cavity is filled. To ensure that the cavity is completely filled, an installer typically sprays an excess amount of the mixture into the cavity such that an excess quantity (i.e. overfill) of the sprayed insulation has accumulated beyond an opening of the cavity defined by the cavity's confining boundaries, i.e. beyond the wall studs, floor or ceiling joists or other framing members defining the cavity. Such an excess amount or overfill is often necessary to ensure a complete fill of the cavity with the insulation mixture, thus minimizing the presence of gaps or voids therein and ensuring that the claimed thermal or acoustic performance, as specified by the manufacturer of the insulation product, is met.
However, to allow for the installation of wallboard, a vapor retarder or other surface materials over the cavity after receiving the insulation mixture, the excess or overfill insulation must be compacted into the cavity or removed therefrom to allow the surface materials to lay flush against the framing members. Excess insulation mixture located on the faces or outer surfaces of the framing members must be removed as well. The excess or overfill sprayed insulation mixture is thus removed or “scrubbed” from the cavity and faces of the framing members with a rotary scrubber to define an outer surface or boundary of the mixture at the cavity's opening lying preferably co-planar with the faces of the framing members.
The rotary scrubber generally comprises a hand-held device having a rotating, motor-driven roller assembly attached thereto. The roller assembly, typically located at a forward end of a framework of the device and including at least one cylindrical brush or textured roller, is driven to rotate by a motor and associated drive belt, also located on the device. The drive belt is in contact with the roller assembly via a pulley or channel defined in the outer surface of the brush or roller. The rotating roller assembly preferably has an end-to-end length that spans or exceeds the width of a building cavity as defined by the framing members. Thus, during the removal process, the rotating roller assembly is positioned against the faces of the framing members to span the width of the cavity. The rotating roller assembly is then pulled along the framing members, preferably in a direction about parallel thereto, such that the brush or roller of the assembly contacts and scrubs the excess of overfill insulation mixture from the cavity and framing members, thus creating the outer surface or boundary of the insulation that is preferably co-planar with the framing members.
Although various rotary scrubbers are presently available to facilitate the removal of excess or overfill sprayed insulation mixtures from building cavities, numerous disadvantages exist with these scrubbers. For example, presently-available scrubbers are not readily adaptable for the removal of insulation mixture from building cavities of extended elevation, thus limiting the vertical reach of these devices. The removal of insulation mixture from areas of extended elevation using such presently-available scrubbers thus often requires the cumbersome use of ladders, step-stools or scaffolding. Although some presently-available scrubbers allow for an extension of vertical reach, the framework of such devices must be fitted or substituted with an “extension” that increases the length of the framework (i.e. arms) that support the devices' roller assembly. However, because increasing the length of the framework supporting the roller assembly of these devices also typically increases the distance between the belt-driven roller assembly and the drive motor, a longer drive belt must also be utilized with these devices along with the extension.
Fitting an extension and associated drive belt to a presently-available scrubber thus requires a disassembly and re-assembly of the device and necessitates the requisite additional extension and belt components. The disassembly and re-assembly of a scrubber to accommodate an extension and associated drive belt thus increases the nonproductive “down-time” of an insulation installation project, while the need for additional belts results in the need to purchase and maintain additional equipment components. Both result in an undesirable increase in project cost.
Disadvantages are also inherently associated with the design and structure of presently-available rotary scrubbers. Presently-available scrubbers typically utilize either a singular or a “U-shaped” framework in association with a singular drive belt to support and drive the rotating roller assembly. The singular framework, typically having the roller assembly located at a forward end of a single extending member, has the drive belt located about the member and over the forward portion of the member at the roller assembly. The “U-shaped” framework, typically having the roller assembly located at the forward ends of twin extending members of the U-shaped frame, typically has the belt located between the twin extending members of the frame.
The singular framework is subject to undesirable bending due to torsion forces applied through the ends of the roller assembly when pulled along the faces or outer surfaces of building cavity framing members during scrubbing procedures. The singular framework is also subject to bending or other damage if the rotary scrubber is inadvertently dropped. Although the “U-shaped” framework may overcome the bending deficiencies of the singular framework, its use in association with a singular drive belt results in a “gouging” of insulation material from the building cavity. Because each twin extending member of the U-shaped frame, where connected to the rotating roller assembly, does not have the belt located about the member and over the forward portion thereof at the brush or roller, the non-moving forward portion of each member drags against the insulation during scrubbing procedures, thus resulting in the occurrence of such undesirable gouging.
Furthermore, the singular drive belt, in transmitting rotational energy from the drive motor to the rotating roller assembly, must overcome the resistance forces created through a contact of the roller assembly with both the faces of the building cavity framing members and the excess or overfill insulation scrubbed from the cavity itself. Such resistance forces are transmitted through the roller assembly to the drive belt via the contact between belt and the pulley or channel of the cylindrical brush or roller of the assembly. Because only a singular belt is in contact the cylindrical brush or roller of the roller assembly, the contact between the belt and assembly is often insufficient to overcome the resistance forces acting on the assembly, thus resulting in belt-slip and an undesirable “stalling” of the rotating roller assembly.
Thus, what is needed is a rotary scrubber that has a readily-adjustable vertical reach for accommodating the scrubbing of insulation from building cavities of extended elevation, without requiring either a disassembly of the scrubber's framework supporting the roller assembly or the need for additional belt components. The scrubber should have a framework and associated belt drive system that overcomes both the rigidity disadvantages of single-member frames and the gouging disadvantages of multi-member frames. The belt drive system of the scrubber should also readily overcome any resistance forces occurring between the belt drive and roller assembly to avoid belt slip and a stalling of the rotating roller assembly itself. This fulfills these foregoing needs.